Parents more supportive of NAPLAN school tests than teachers: survey

Whitlam Institute director Eric Sidoti says the survey found a small majority of parents are in favour of NAPLAN testing.

ABC News

Parents are more supportive of NAPLAN testing than school teachers, according to a survey.

The survey of more than 500 parents was commissioned by the Whitlam Institute within the University of Western Sydney, and shows 56 per cent of parents are in favour of NAPLAN (National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy).

"Seventy per cent of those parents surveyed indicated that they found their children's test results to be useful," Whitlam Institute director Eric Sidoti said.

"I don't think it's stretching it too far to suggest that they just basically want to know more about how their kids are performing and they want some confidence that it's being monitored and something's being done about it if there's some sort of need."

"This varied from things that were just run of the mill anxiety through to more serious indicators of sleeplessness, vomiting or crying," Mr Sidoti said.

What is NAPLAN?

Annual literacy and numeracy tests for school students in years three, five, seven and nine.

Assesses reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy skills.

Testing takes place May, early in the school year.

Parents or carers may withdraw their child from the tests under special circumstances.

Performance is measured on a national achievement scale, indicating how students compare with the national minimum standard.

Individual student reports are issued to schools and sent on to parents later in the year.

Overall school results can be compared with that of other schools on the MySchools website.

"This 40 per cent is a high enough figure to raise concern.

"It shows that the testing has deleterious effects on the well-being of a significant amount of young people."

NAPLAN annually tests school students in years three, five, seven and nine on reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy.

There are reports education ministers are considering expanding NAPLAN testing to include subjects like geography, maths and science.

But Mr Sidoti has reservations about that idea.

"Great care is needed at the very least, before the system should be expanded," he said.

"The expectations that are weighing on NAPLAN both in policy terms and in terms of its impacts do warrant a little bit more consideration as to whether you can mitigate that or how worthwhile it is to that extent.

"NAPLAN has become high stakes, it's carrying a hell of a lot of weight for something that was intended to be a diagnostic tool."

The Whitlam Institute's research also shows only 17 per cent of parents claimed to have visited the MySchool website in the past 12 months to compare the NAPLAN results of their child's school with other schools.